Punishment Thy Name is Ruin
by Gahlik
Summary: A novelisation on the Pure dark ending on Shadow the Hedgehog which I THINK is canon because it is ending number one. So...that pretty much sums it up right there. T for mild violence and language. Discontinued Temporarily.
1. Chapter 1

**Punishment. Thy Name is Ruin**

**Prologue**

_This is a novel thing on Shadow the Hedgehog, on the pure dark ending. Which I THINK is canon because it is ending number 1 in the library._

_As Shadow tries to remember his past, a strange cloud engulfs the city of Westopolis, and drops strange creatures out. As Shadow begins to walk away, a figure approaches…_

A black hedgehog was standing in a field overlooking the city of Westopolis. He was trying as hard as possible to remember anything. A newspaper was flying in the breeze. It hit Shadow's leg, and he could just read the cover story before it flew away. "Fire in the Sky Festival! 50 year return of the Black Comet!"

"Shadow the Hedgehog…why does that name haunt me? It's the only thing I can remember. Aside from that…" Shadow dropped his head and closed his eyes in disgust. "…gruesome image…"

_Shadow was running, and holding a young blonde girl's hand. He was being chased by human soldiers. Then, to his utter dismay, Shadow tripped and let go of the girl. The soldier caught up with them. He held up his pistol and aimed at the girl._

_The girl reached out for Shadow, gasped, and then dropped dead, blood spilling from her chest. _

"_MARIA!!!!" Was that him yelling?_

Shadow raised his head. "Who am I, why can't I remember anything, and, who is this Maria?"

Without any warning, a large red cloud moved in to the center of the city, and a sort of vortex was in the middle. Large black creatures suddenly poured out of the cloud, and caused absolute destruction in their wake. Buildings were already starting to topple, and Shadow could already see humans and cars being flung around.

"Hmph. Look how pathetic they are. I don't have time for these humans." Shadow said angrily. He turned around and started to leave.

"Shadow…"

Shadow turned his head, completely confused. He hadn't seen anyone coming…

Standing, or more accurately floating, before him was what Shadow could only describe as an overgrown blackish purple starfish. It had a large orange eye with a black iris. The eye projected an image of _another_ floating thing. This one had 3 eyes that looked similar to the starfish thing. The eyes were on a black head, with 1 spike on each side, very similar to Shadow's quills. It sported hands with 3 fingers, but a brown cloak covered the arms, if there were any. It sported nothing more than these features.

"As you can see, the day of reckoning is here. Find and retrieve the seven Chaos Emeralds, and bring them to me…as promised." It said.

"Huh? Who are you, what are you talking about and, how do you know I'm Shadow?" Shadow asked.

The image disappeared, and the starfish flew into the city. Shadow reached out to grab it, but explosions from human fire had blocked Shadow from moving much farther. By the time the smoke cleared, it was no where to be seen.

"Just what was that all about? Well, if he knows the secrets to my past, then like it or not, I have to believe him. The only way I'm going to find out, is to get those Chaos Emeralds!" Shadow ran off into the ruined city to find the first.

**And so, the prologue comes to a close. This may have been a bit off, so don't sue me. **


	2. Westopolis Part 1

Punishment. Thy Name is Ruin.  
Westopolis part 1

Note to everyone: This story is going to take place in Shadow's eyes ONLY. We will not be visiting the G.U.N. Commander. Shadow's thoughts will be placed in 'Here is a thought'.

So...let's get on with it!

"Hmmmm...The 'Promised Time' huh? Well then, time to go and fulfill this promise..." Shadow ran through the city, not seeing anything for a while.

"Hmm...you'd think that in a war zone, there would be...war." Shadow zoomed along. Finally, he saw something: A G.U.N. soldier. He wasn't heavily armed, but Shadow hadn't expected him to be. Just a pistol. Shadow was about to attack him when a large blue laser came down from the sky. The resulting explosion was enormous, taking out not only the soldier, but four of the surrounding buildings. Shadow was inches away from touching the explosin, but still felt a shockwave. He swore under his breath. Shadow was going to look for the pistol, but thought better of it. The G.U.N. Soldier was nowhere to be found. He doubted the pistol survived the explosion.

"Oh well...moving on." Shadow walked a little farther, and almost tripped over some rubble. When he cleared the crater, he saw Sonic attacking a small black bird looking alien. Sonic wrestled it to the ground, and then punched it in the face. The head ripped open easily. Shadow saw Sonic make a disgusted look. Then he looked up, which was the last thing Shadow wanted.

"Hey Shadow! Long time no see. Looks like these black creatures really mean business! What do you say you and me show them a thing or two?" Sonic offered. Shadow, however, scowled at Sonic.

"Step aside Sonic, I'm just here for the Chaos Emerald." Shadow ordered. Sonic gave a surprised look. He replaced it with an amused one.

"A Chaos Emerald? You sure there is one here? We can't let the black creatures get it." Sonic said. Shadow noticed he was itching to move.

"Yeah well, don't worry. They will have to go through me to get it, because I need it for my own reasons." Shadow said, then added "And until I'm done with them, you can't have them either." Sonic kept the amused look.

"Alright, fine Shadow. As long as the black creatures don't get them." Sonic said, and ran off. Shadow followed simply because there was no other way to go. The rubble from the laser had blocked the path he had come from. There was another bird, and Sonic killed it with a homing attack. Then there was a ridge, which Shadow assumed used to be a street. When Shadow jumped down, he saw 3 G.U.N. soldiers armed with pistols in combat with a single black creature. This one was much larger, almost twice Shadow's size. It was jet black, but with 3 crimson streaks on it's head, and one going down each arm and leg. 'Just like me...' The creature was armed with a small, probably living gun. Shadow decided to sit this one out and enjoy the show.

A G.U.N. soldier aimed and fired a the black creature, but missed. Shadow saw some sparks on the wall of a building behind the black creature. Then the black creature fired a shot. Shadow saw a pink flare on the gun.

The effect on the human it hit was immediate and unexpected. Where the shot had hit, or where Shadow expected it hit, exploded. In this case, it was the head. The rest of the body was thrown back, and caught fire. Pink fire. Probably some sort of plasma energy.

'Wow...that's a powerful weapon...' The Human soldier's comrades seemed to falter after seeing this. They both fired a shot at the black creature. One hit square in the chest, but the other missed. The black creature stumbled, but did not die. He dropped his weapon, and charged head on at the human who had hit him, green blood dripping from his chest. His head hit the human in the face, and the human went flying backwards. He finally hit the concrete ground head first around 20 meters away.

The black creature turned his head to the last human, and then fell over. Shadow wondered for a moment what had happened, because he didn't hear a gunshot. Then he saw Sonic standing over the black creature. Shadow ran over to him.

"Hey Shadow! Just finishing off some black creatures." Sonic said proudly. His look of pride immediately changed to a look of horror and surprise. Shadow swung his fist so fast and so hard, that he was surprised he could have dome that. He hit Sonic square in the chest, and heard a gasp of terror. Sonic fell over, and landed in his back onto the ground. Shadow knew he wasn't dead, but he wasn't going to risk getting the blue hedgehog in his way for a while. The G.U.N. soldier seemed scared for a moment, and then fired at Shadow. He was hit in the arm.

"That...was the dumbest thing you have done in your whole life..." Shadow said. The soldier fired 3 more shots, and all missed. Shadow ran to the black creature's weapon to pick it up, then he noticed something.

The green Chaos Emerald was there, on top of a red box. Shadow had seen it during the battle, but it was closed. Killing the black creature must have opened it. Then he heard a gunshot ring out. He had momentarily forgotten about the soldier, and he was hit in the exact same place as last time. Shadow swore loudly this time. He picked up the gun, and without knowing what the heck to do with it, aimed at the soldier. The human dropped his gun immediately, but Shadow wasn't about to show mercy. He couldn't find a trigger, so decided to squeeze the handle instead. A pink flare engulfed the gun, and the G.U.N. soldier's head exploded, and his body caught pink fire. 'Strange...I wasn't aiming at his head...'

Shadow grabbed the Chaos Emerald, and then jumped a ledge. A large pile of rubble lay before him.

"Ugh...I can't believe this!" Shadow yelled. As if on cue, another laser came down and destroyed the rubble. This time, Shadow was caught in the explosion, but only a bit of it. Shadow's entire body was burning up, and then, it all went away. The Chaos Emerald must have eased his pain, but he wasn't sure. However, it did not matter.

Shadow got up, and started run again. And then he saw it: the starfish. The starfish turned to Shadow.

"You are late Shadow." It said. "From now on, my eye shall follow and observe you for me. Now, start by finishing off these soldiers who dare to defy me."

"I have my own reasons for collecting the Chaos Emeralds, and they don't involve destroying every human in sight." Shadow said. The starfish thing seemed amused by this comment.

"I know. I heard you talking to the blue hedgehog. But when you are done, what are you going to do with them? As you can see, the humans are no match for the Black Arms. If you refuse to hand them over, we will destroy you as well." The starfish explained. Shadow had to think about that one for a moment. Shadow thought he could take on the starfish thing no problem. But the entire alien army? Could he do that? Shadow doubted it.

"Alright, I will for now. We will see where this goes. But I already have the Chaos Emerald here." Shadow said.

"There is another, but we will not give it to you until you help us."

"Fine...I'll help you. As long as you give the Chaos Emeralds to me." Shadow said.

"Very well. My soldiers are in combat with the humans over here. The humans are no match, but they could still use some help..." The starfish pointed one of its...limbs in front of Shadow, and he saw 3 G.U.N. soldiers armed with pistols, and one with an H&K Sub-Machine Gun against 2 of the humanoid black creatures with the strange plasma pistols, and 3 of the birds. Shadow knew the G.U.N. soldiers were screwed, and the humans themselves probably knew it as well, but that did not stop them.

They fired at the black creatures, and killed one of the birds. The bird exploded in a mist of green blood. Shadow remembered he too had one of the plasma pistols, and fired it at two of the soldier, hitting both square in the chest. Even so, both the soldiers' heads exploded, and the bodies caught pink fire. One of the soldiers he hit had the SMG. Shadow wasn't sure how that happens, and he wasn't so sure he wanted to know either. The black creatures looked surprised, as they did not know there was another around.

Shadow jumped over one of the creatures, shot one of the humans, and then cracked the skull of the last. He saw that the humanoid creatures were stunned, but then dispersed. One fo them threw in front of him what looked like a seed. Shadow ran off to find the rest of the humans.

"As you can see, our race is indicated with jet black and crimson skin...just like yours..." The starfish said randomly. Shadow had already noticed this, and found it a bit odd. This starfish thing claims to know Shadow, and he is also red and black. Could Shadow be one of the black creatures? If so, then where had the other black creatures come from? Had they also been an experiment by Gerald? Had they bred? Or had the whole thing been a lie? Despite overwhelming evidence, he could not even be the Ultimate Life form, but a spawn of the black creatures...could it be? Shadow shook off the thought, and decided to save it for later.

And so, it comes to an end here. I have to break Westopolis up into parts, because I have to clean up. See you in part 2!


	3. Westopolis part 2

**Punishment. Thy Name is Ruin**

**Westopolis part 2**

_As Shadow continues through Westopolis, he stumbles upon more alien weapons, and a tremendous, highly destructive power._

**On with the show! Err…story….**

Shadow continued on through the city, the thought of him being a black creature wriggling to the back of his mind. He had other things to worry about now. Besides, if he got the Chaos Emeralds, he would figure it all out.

He reached an opening, or what used to be an opening. It was surrounded by rubble, and the doors were only half-closed because they were caught in it. Laser fire splashed all around him, and Shadow hoped one of the lasers would hit the rubble. A few seconds later, one did. For a moment, Shadow thought the resulting explosion would knock the whole tunnel down. But no, this laser had apparently been set to a weaker power. The rubble cleared, and the doors fell into the tunnel, ripped off of it.

Shadow ran though, just as the tunnel started collapsing. There was a loud _crash_ and then it stopped. The way behind him was blocked. There was a small G.U.N. encampment up ahead, and he could see the corpse of a bird-like black creature with a knife through it's head. Green blood was still trickling from the wound. Shadow walked slowly. He could see metal boxes with the G.U.N. logo on them, and a couple of wooden walls.

Then he saw a few soldiers. Four soldiers. Three of them armed with pistols, and one armed with an SMG and a bullet-proof shield. There was also a G.U.N. Beetle sentry. It was a small, floating, semi-ball shaped robots with the number 01 painted on the side. Shadow could see a small barrel on it, indicating a weapon. 'Hmm…I wonder what effect this weapon has on the sentries?'

Shadow aimed at the sentry, and fired. Unlike with the soldiers, the effect was not immediate. It took around 4 seconds to take effect on the robot. For a moment, Shadow was unsure it even had an effect. Then it happened: the sentry started spinning around very, very fast. And it made a noise, a loud whistling noise. Shadow lowered his ears to drown it out. The soldiers all looked at the sentry. It continued spinning for a full ten seconds, then stopped so fast, it was as if it had not happened.

Gunshots rang out, and Shadow's immediate reaction was to dive for cover. However, the gunshots did not aim for him. The sentry had started firing on the soldiers! Even so, the weapon's accuracy on the sentry was not so good, and gunshots were flying all over the place. One soldier was hit right on the heart. He stumbled, and hit the ground face first. It took a while for the soldiers to get out of the initial shock that their own sentry had just fired on them. The one with the SMG recovered first, and fired four shots into the sentry. Three hit the sentry, but it did not fall. It continued firing on the soldiers. Then one of the other soldiers fired, and hit it right in its "eye". The sentry was shoved backwards, and fell to the ground. A few seconds later, it caught fire, and exploded. The whole thing lasted around eight seconds.

The soldiers stared, and then two rushed over to their fallen comrade. The third stayed where it was, still staring at the sentry.

"What happened? Why did it fire on us?" He asked no one in particular. He looked back to his two surviving allies and said "Leave him, he is dead. There is nothing we can do." The two soldiers nodded gently, and returned to their positions. The one with the SMG, which Shadow guessed was the squad leader, took out a radio. He turned it on and started speaking into it.

"All units in Westopolis, we have just been fired upon by our own Beetle Sentry. One of our comrades is down. Deactivate all Combat Beetles to prevent this from happening." He said. He deactivated the radio, not waiting for a reply. Shadow was quite surprised they had not heard the alien weapon fire. But then again, he was hearing it ring out all over the city. Shadow took aim, and fired at the leader, for he had dropped his shield to put the radio back into his pocket. The soldier's head exploded, and…ah, you know the drill.

The other two soldiers' reactions were immediate. They had heard the shot this time, and turned toward Shadow. Hey both took aim, and seven bullets were fired at him. They had all hit the metal box, which collapsed. Shadow had lost his cover, and aimed at one of the soldiers. He squeezed the handle, but nothing happened. He squeezed twice more, but still nothing happened. Shadow noticed its weight was heavier, and turned it over. A large piece of metal was lodged inside of it, which killed the gun. Shadow swore, and dodged two more bullets. He dropped the gun, and charged at one of the soldiers. He jumped so that his feet were at head level with the soldier. He activated his air shoes so that he would float, and then kicked, hard on the soldiers face. His foot slammed through the soldiers flesh, and he fell backward, dropping the pistol. The remaining soldier fired another four shots at Shadow, and missed. Then Shadow fired three shots to the chest, and two to the head. The soldier stumbled, and fell backward.

It took Shadow a moment to realize that the starfish was no longer with him. It must have gone off to check on the rest of his soldiers. Then, there was a flash of green light, and Black Doom himself was there. He looked around at the soldiers.

"Impressive…" He said darkly. This time, Shadow noticed something strange with his voice. It was impossibly deep, it seemed to have a three millisecond echo, and Shadow could hear…whispers…behind his voice. They stopped as soon as Black Doom finished speaking. If Black Doom ad not threatened him with death if he did not obey him, he would be pretty cool. Black Doom waved his arm, and there was a flash of blue light. Where Doom was, there floated the starfish thing.

"Not many humans left Shadow…get going and destroy them." The starfish said in Doom's voice. Shadow raced on, and found the exit to the tunnel. He ran out, and saw another sentry. This one, however, was not armed. But it had little plane wings on it's side, which probably made it faster. This sentry was built for reconnaissance, not battle, and had therefore not been deactivated, and it had spotted Shadow. It zoomed off in another direction. Shadow was more alert now. G.U.N. knew he was here now. He was expecting an ambush or something. He moved slowly, cautiously. Is eyes darted in every direction, and his ears were perked up for the slightest sound.

Shadow heard a loud _BOOM_. He brought his ears back down, and rubbed them. The sound had hurt his ears, and keeping them sensitive to the slightest sound had not exactly helped. Shadow looked around. Certainly something that had made that huge sound would have been pretty big itself.

And then he heard treads. He looked in the direction of the sound, and saw a large tank being dropped by a dropship. The dropship had apparently tried to fire a missile at Shadow, as Shadow saw a missile pod with no missile. The tank started moving slowly toward him. It fired its main cannon, and missed Shadow by inches. Shadow could hear it whistling past his ear. Then he heard an explosion behind him. Shadow had no idea what to do. While reloading the main weapon, the tank fired it's .50 cal machine gun. The bullets had explosive head on them, so Shadow was continuously dodging bullets and small explosions.

Then he saw a black creature. It was fumbling with something that looked like a large, black toad. The toad had a single, very large crimson eye with a dark yellow iris, located on the middle of it's head. The toad was long and fat. It was black, with a single red streak running from it's eye to it's tail. It was also apparently slimy, or very smooth, or had some characteristic that made it hard to hold, as the black creature had dropped it three or four times. The last time it dropped it, a grenade had landed just below it's legs. The black creature looked at it curiously, and then it exploded. When it had cleared, the toad-like thing was still there, but the black creature was gone.

Another loud boom had brought Shadow's attention back to the tank. It had fired a round at three black creatures huddled together, almost touching each other. It hit right in the middle of the group, and they were all flying through the air, and hit the ground hard. Green blood was pouring out of their mouths and backs. The tank was aiming for Shadow again, firing it's machine, and was about to unload a round from it's main gun.

Another black creature was running toward the toad. He had more luck in holding it that the other one. He picked up, and threw it at the tank. Shadow wondered what it could possibly do.

The tank unloaded a round from it's main cannon, heading straight for Shadow. Shadow saw it coming, and jumped to dodge it. However, the pilot was smarter this time, and fired at Shadow's feet instead of his chest. It exploded right below him, Shadow swore at the top of his lungs, and flew upward about twenty feet before landing on the ground.

If Shadow had any bones, he was sure he would have broken both of his legs. But in a situation like this, you don't have time to feel sorry for yourself. Shadow got off the ground. He was amazed to see that his legs were cooperating. They were healing fast.

The tank was firing it's machine gun at Shadow. Shadow jumped around very fast. It reminded him of when Rouge woke him up from the Doctor's base…

The tank unloaded another round from it's main cannon. Shadow ran backward this time, dodging it completely. When the smoke cleared, he charged at it. When he got near it, he jumped onto the main cannon. He was going to shoot the pilot, which should stop the tank, and maybe Shadow could pilot it himself.

A powerful shock made Shadow jump off the tank. He stared at it, wondering what could have possibly done that. The tank started going spastic, moving in circles and spinning its main cannon in different directions. Then it stopped. Shadow wondered what had happened.

Flash of red light surrounded the tank. It started to fall apart slowly…slowly…treads fell on to the ground, wires shot out of the sockets, and the cannon toppled off. Then the light thickened, and the tank exploded. Shards of metal flew everywhere, and Shadow retreated behind some rubble.

Well, that had put an end to it…and Shadow's desire to drive it.

**Wow…took me until just now to realize just how long these chapters are going to be…I'm probably going to have to break each level into three-five parts. **

**Well…uhhh…as you can see…the "destructive power" has not been found yet. I'm sure most of you know what it is. If you have not played Shadow the Hedgehog, it's ok if you do not know.**

**If you have played, and you do not know what the destructive power is, you are an ignoramus. **

**Seeya next time!**


	4. Westopolis Escape

**Punishment. Thy Name is Ruin. **

**Chapter three **

**Westopolis – Escape **

****

_With the tank destroyed, the Chaos emerald close by, the defense force crumbling, and the city falling apart, it is time to grab the Chaos Emerald and get the out of there. _

"Shadow….some of my army ran into a human encampment near the south edge of the city. They were unable to destroy it. I am sending another wave. You must join them. That is where the Chaos Emerald is. The last of the defense force is there, as well as some secret human weapon. Destroy the human encampment, the weapon, and the soldiers. Get the Chaos Emerald, and I will give you your next objectives."

Shadow heard this inside his mind. Black Doom was no where near him. He was off somewhere else, probably near the encampment. Shadow made his way to the south edge of the city, where Black Doom had said. The journey was not at all eventful. Lasers were still falling, and buildings were crumbling. Shadow wondered if the bombardment would continue after the attack.

After a couple of minutes, he had found the encampment. Apparently, the black aliens were unable to hide themselves very well, as the battle had already started. The casualties of the battle were already strewn across the ground. Green and red mixed, and humans and aliens alike were on the ground next to each other, the bleeding stopping. Shadow could hear the guns firing. He could see the pink flares from the aliens, and the muzzle flashes from the humans. The humans were apparently losing, as Shadow could see more human bodies than alien. There were also many bodies behind him, indicating that the aliens were pushing the humans back.

Shadow ran into the middle of the battle, holding the pistol he had stolen in front of him. He fired a few shots into the battle. He did not know what they had hit, however. Most of the humans and aliens had taken out melee weapons. They were too close for ranged fighting, but some on each side stayed back to pick their enemies off.

Again, he fired, but aimed this time. He fired close to the encampment, because that's where most of the humans were. He hit two, killed them both.

And then a white flare raced past him. It went right into the middle of the fighting, causing an explosion. Humans and aliens alike were all thrown back. Whatever it was, it must have killed at least twenty humans and aliens.

Shadow looked around, and saw a large robot. Smoke was pouring out of one of it's arms. Apparently, it had just fired a missile. This must be the human weapon Black Doom was talking about.

The robot looked like the robots he had seen on the ARK, but it was bulkier, and green. It was also much more heavily armed. It had a large white 03 painted on the left side of it's head.

It brought up it's other arm, and fired the weapon on it onto the alien's side of the field. It fired the weapon. It fired so quickly and accurately, that Shadow could actually see a line of bullets trailing from the gun. On his side of the field, aliens were falling rapidly, with holes going straight through their bodies.

The robot stopped firing it's gun, and walked closer to the battle. This robot walked strangely. It was not perfect movement, like most other G.U.N. robots, but walked like a living creature. Like a human.

Every step made the ground shake. When it got about have way to the battle, the missile launcher retracted to the inside of the arm. For a second, there was a hole, then something else popped out. It was not very big, it was like a handle. Then, Something started to crawl out of the handle: a blade. A long, sharp, blade splattered with green blood. It started running, almost matching Shadow's speed. When it reached the battle, it swiped its sword with the same speed it had ran with.

Green and red blood rained down and the battle near it. It brought up its sword, and looked at it for a fraction of a second. From what Shadow saw, though he wasn't sure, it had killed four aliens and two humans. It had not seemed to care however. This would be a pain to fight.

So, Shadow decided to join the fighting in the middle, staying far from the robot. He had no intention of fighting that, and hoped it would be dead before he was forced to.

One of the humans was running toward him, a pistol in his right hand, a sword in his left. He fired a few shots at surrounding aliens, killing three, and injuring four more. His pistol had apparently been modified, as some of the bullets killed black creatures in places a pistol normally would not. But then again, he had no idea of the biology of the black creatures, so he wouldn't know. However, the pistol also made a louder sound than the others, and had a strange shade of red as a muzzle flash.

Meanwhile, the robot was causing mass destruction on the other side of the battlefield.

**(A/N: Sorry, had to do that...) **

The man that was running at Shadow was almost to him. He raised up is sword, and Shadow raised his gun. He fired three shots into the man's head. However, to Shadow's utter surprise, the man did not fall. He winced a little, but kept coming. Shadow fired a few more shots, but he still did not die. Shadow jumped out of the way, allowing the man to thrust his sword through a black creature. Shadow fired continuously while the man pulled his sword out. Seven shots, and then was out of ammo. He had no spare clips on him, so he dropped the gun, and picked up one of the living alien pistols nearby. He fired at the man. This time, it seemed to have an effect, but not the same one. His head bulged a little, and then returned to normal size. The man toppled over, dropping both of his weapons.

Shadow picked up both the sword and the pistol. Both had something unnatural about them. The sword was heavier than most swords, and seemed to vibrate on it's own. The pistol was about half the size of a normal one, but about twice the weight.

Shadow had no idea what just happened, but took a quick look at the man. He was about two feet taller than everyone else. He also had strange red armor on him that Shadow had never seen before. It, like the sword, vibrated slightly, so that the body moved around a little.

He turned away, and started fighting the other humans. He fired the pistol at a human's leg, and he keeled over in pain. The bullet had ripped his flesh apart, leaving a large wound, blood pouring out. Shadow ended his misery by firing another shot into his head..

By now, Shadow had actually noticed the black alien's swords. They were almost as large as the aliens themselves. They were purple, with a darker purple streak running through the middle. There was a circular hole that the aliens held on to. Shadow bet that it could easily pierce the human's body armor. Shadow turned his attention back to the battle.

He swung his sword at any human that got near him, desperate to find the Chaos Emerald. They were getting closer to the encampment now…it shouldn't be long.

Shadow hear another explosion, and looked around at the robot. It was now very close to him. Shadow decided it was time to fight it. Now that Shadow was close enough, he could tell that it wasn't much taller than most humans. It was about a foot and a half than that strange human in the armor he had to fight. However, even though it was smaller, it had a lot more firepower and speed. That sword would easily sever Shadow, or anything it came in contact with, really. Shadow aimed the pistol and fired four shots into its back. The gun was very accurate; all four shots hit the exact same place. A hole appeared in the armor, and it turned around to face Shadow.

'_Crap!_'

It brought its chain gun up, and fired. Over 200 bullets made a hole where seconds before Shadow was standing.

Shadow ran around to the back of the robot to fire more shots. Even thought the robot was extremely fast, turning around was sluggish, and Shadow could easily stay behind it. He kept firing into its back. Eventually, a hole he made reached about seven inches in, and to Shadow's great surprise, blood was slowly dripping out of the robot. Red, human blood. A human was inside the robot controlling it. Shadow had not been expecting that, the robot was incredibly cold-blooded. It did not seem to care who it killed, as long as it had blood on its sword.

Then, a fire erupted on the back, and Shadow wondered if he had destroyed it. But no, it flew up into the air. The robot had a _jetpack_!

'Well….this presents quite a problem…'

Shadow fired upwards, but the robot's speed in the air, if not matched, surpassed it's speed on the ground. It could also turn around much faster, making it nearly impossible for Shadow to hit.

The battle was nearly to the encampment now. Some of the humans retreated inside, and used emplaced turrets to fire on the black creatures. Shadow started to look around the battlefield, in hopes of finding a human or black alien with an explosive weapon, maybe even one of the toads.

The robot retracted the sword, and got the missile launcher out again. He aimed ahead of Shadow, and fired a few missiles. One of them made him topple over, and he struggled to get back up. The explosion also made him drop the sword, but he did not bother to pick it back up. It would put him in more danger, and it wouldn't really help him much more anyway.

He ran through the battlefield, dodging missiles and bullets that were missing him by inches. Then he saw a human with a very large weapon. It had to be a missile launcher. Shadow made his way toward him, shot him with his pistol, and swapped it with the missile launcher. He aimed upward a the robot, and noticed two triggers o the weapon. He put his finger on the first, and a small red laser shot out of the gun. He aimed it at the robot, but it did not seem to do any damage. He pulled the second trigger, and a missile blasted out of the weapon. It soared upward to the robot, but missed. Shadow was about to fire another, but the current missile turned around and started heading for the robot again.

This time, it hit. There was a loud noise, and an explosion. The robot became a fireball, and fell down like a meteor, shards of metal falling off and hitting aliens and humans. In a last, desperate effort, the robot fired all he could, constantly firing it's chain gun and missile launcher in every direction. Shadow noticed the sword he was using earlier break apart from multiple hits from the chain gun, and something glowing blue fell out of the hilt.

"The Chaos Emerald!" Shadow yelled, and many of the black aliens turned their heads wildly to him, causing quite a few to get gunned down.

The humans were now in full retreat. They dropped everything, and started to run to some dropships, waiting to pick them up.

"Do not let those ships escape!"

Black Doom himself ad entered the fray, firing red discs at the humans, cutting them open. He pointed toward the dropships, and all the black aliens ran, firing at them.

The dropships had weapons of their own, however. They all had the same chain gun that robot had. They fired it into the line of the black aliens, while they fired back.

Shadow, ignoring Black Doom's orders, ran for the Chaos Emerald. He reached and grabbed it, while a dropship fired on him. He ran to the very back of the black aliens' line, and stayed there, waiting for the battle to finally be over.

Moments later, it was. Four of the nine dropships were shot down, leaving a little more than half of the survivors to get away. Shadow had both of the Chaos Emeralds in his hands, staring at them with a look of longing.

"Just five more to go, and I will be able to unlock the secrets to my past." Shadow said to himself. He looked up. Black Doom was standing over him.

"Very impressive…Shadow." Black Doom said. "The humans in this city have been completely annihilated…you found two of the seven Chaos Emeralds here. There is still much work to do, however. Give me the Chaos Emeralds, I will keep them safe."

"No. Not right now. I don't trust too easily. I don't think you will be very willing to hand them over to me when I need them. When I get the secrets to my past, then I will willingly hand them over. I do not care who will win the war, as long as I know my past. I will keep them safe until you need them." Shadow said with finality. He expected Black Doom to hurt him. But, he was much more compliant then Shadow thought.

"Very well, Shadow, I will let you hold them. But, if you do not hand them over after you are done with them, we will not hesitate to kill you." Black Doom said. He moved his head around a little before speaking again. "We know the location of the third Chaos Emerald, but it will be hard to get to. Go access the CIA's mainframe, understand? The Chaos Emerald is inside the mainframe. You will need to enter the computer, delete the core program, get he Chaos Emerald, and get out of there before the entire mainframe collapses. Understand?"

"Got it." Shadow said. He started walking away, but then stopped. "One final note before I go. Keep your army from trying to kill me."

"Because anyone who gets in my way is my enemy."

**Whoo! Westopolis is done. Now, uh, I am going to add and change a WHOLE lot. I will definitely add totally new places and characters for Shadow to visit and meet in his quest for the Chaos Emeralds. I will also add, change, and remove parts of some of the levels, to make a better, more original story. **


End file.
